The Houses of Parliament in London were designed by Sir Charles Barry with drawings by A.W.N. Pugin. Initial construction took place from 1837-1843. Woodcarvings, furnishings and decoration were carried out to the design of Pugin from 1844-1852. The clock tower was completed by Barry in 1858 with the building taken to completion by his son, E.M. Barry, between 1860-1870. They comprise the largest single British building of the nineteenth century, the design being the result of a competition following the destruction by fire of the old Palace of Westminster. They are significant for a number of reasons. The first is the process leading to their stylistic design, whereby a committee of both Houses prepared specifications insisting on the national Gothic or Elizabethan (English Perpendicular) style. Barry's design, a picturesque 'Perpendicular' composition satisfying symbolic dictates, at the same time shows modern planning in its accomodation of the legislature's requirements. In the building's construction state of the art techniques, embodying the advances of the Industrial Revolution, were used in both the building's construction and services as well as in Pugin's interior decorative work. Ruskin later professed that he had had an instant dislike of the building ( Works, 12.lxx-lxxi). He described the building as'... the absurdest piece of filigree,-and, as it were, eternal foolscap in freestone...' ( Works, 22.261); elsewhere as an example of 'foolish foliation' ( Works, 10.260).